Commissioning method and commissioning system

ABSTRACT

The present application relates to a commissioning method and a commissioning system. The commissioning method comprises: establishing a commissioning mission and sending it to a controller of a HVAC system, the commissioning mission comprising setting at least one test work condition with respect to an object to be commissioned, instructing the HVAC system and a digital twin system corresponding to the HVAC system to respectively operate with the at least one test work condition by the controller of the HVAC system; comparing physical data generated by the HVAC system and digital data generated by the digital twin system, and based on a comparison result, diagnosing the object to be commissioned. The present application can enable fast commissioning and obtain a reliable result.

FOREIGN PRIORITY

This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 201810706978.8, filed Jul. 2, 2018, and all the benefits accruing therefrom under 35 U.S.C. § 119, the contents of which in its entirety are herein incorporated by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present application relates to a commissioning method, which specifically relates to a commissioning method for a HVAC system. Further, the present application relates to a commissioning system for the HVAC system.

BACKGROUND ART

“HVAC” is the abbreviation for “Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning”. A HVAC system applied in a large space has complicated configurations, and its installation is time-consuming and strenuous. Generally, engineers require months to commission a HVAC system and to ensure a right and proper installation as well as the fulfillment of normal functions. At present, a field engineer would fabricate a commission scheme and schedule according to a design blueprint and code requirements, and needs to manually verify the performance of every apparatus. Since a large-scale air-conditioning system comprises multiple parts, one large office building can have thousands of terminal devices (e.g., fan coils). Moreover, influence relationship between all component parameters is intricate, which requires a comprehensive consideration during commissioning. Each parameter's tiny adjustment is likely to cause a large or small change in parameters of the whole system, and further affect its performance. In this manner, a manual commissioning consumes much time.

SUMMARY

One aspect of the present application is to provide an automatic commissioning method for a HVAC system.

The commissioning method comprises the step of: establishing a commissioning mission and sending it to a controller of the HVAC system, the commissioning mission comprising setting at least one test work condition with respect to an object to be commissioned, instructing the HVAC system and a digital twin system corresponding to the HVAC system to respectively operate with the at least one test work condition by the controller of the HVAC system ; comparing physical data which is generated by the HVAC system and digital data which is generated by the digital twin system, and based on a comparison result, diagnosing the object to be commissioned.

Another aspect of the present application is to provide a commissioning system for a HVAC system, the HVAC system comprising a controller, a HVAC component, an actuator associated with the HVAC component and a sensing component for detecting the HVAC component, wherein the commissioning system comprises: a test work condition unit configured to establish a commissioning mission and send the commissioning mission to the controller; a digital twin system comprising a digital component, a digital actuator and a digital sensing component corresponding to the HVAC component, the actuator and the sensing component, wherein the digital twin system is corresponding to the HVAC system and receives the commissioning mission from the controller with the HVAC system; and, a diagnostic engine configured to receive physical data from the HVAC system and digital data from the digital twin system and produce a diagnosis result based on the physical data and the digital data.

The above solution is capable of fast commissioning and the acquirement of a reliable of result. By a digital twin model corresponding to a HVAC system, the HVAC system and a digital twin system operate in the same input condition; further, an actual output and a theory output generated by the two systems are compared and the determination about abnormality of the object to be commissioned automatically made with a result being produced rapidly. Moreover, the solution can be employed in the examining test or functional test of an equipment level and a system level.

With the elaboration of the figures below, other aspects and features of the present application become evident. However, one shall know that the figures are designed purely for explanation, rather than for a limit to the scope of the present application; it is because the scope limit shall refer to the additional claims. As shall be understood further, the figures are intended purely for conceptually explain the structure and course described here; unless a special indication, it is unnecessary to fabricate figures according to the proportion.

DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES

Referring to the following embodiments with the figures, one will understand the present application more sufficiently. And, identical reference signs contained in the figures always indicate the same element shown in the figures. In the figure,

FIG. 1 shows the structural frame of a HVAC system and the commissioning system according to the present application.

FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of commissioning a cooling pump according to the present application.

EMBODIMENTS

To help one skilled in the art understand the subject claimed by the present application exactly, a detailed description of specific embodiments is made with the figures as follows:

The present application relates to a commissioning system and a commissioning method for a HVAC system, which are intended for testing the installation condition and the functional condition of equipment during an initial installation of the HVAC system so as to ensure the whole system to operate normally and to meet design requirements and conform to standards. The tests can cover examinations and tests of all aspects of the HVAC system, such as electric examination, insulation examination, functional test, operational function test, functional test of alarm/shutoff, start and stop experiment, functional experiment and the operation of air-conditioning system. After commissioning, one can know whether or not a device improperly installed or containing malfunctions exists such that hidden dangers are eliminated for normal operations.

FIG. 1 is an architecture diagram illustrating the HVAC system and the commissioning system acting on this HVAC system according to the present application, which shows three layers of systems/modules. The first layer is a real HVAC system that is to be commissioned. The HVAC is rather a complicated system, which is constituted by cooling water circulation, chilled water circulation, source of cold and heat, air process unit, terminal device (e.g., fan coils), etc. Further, the second layer is a digital twin system established to correspond to the physical HVAC system. The digital twin system is a simulation model of digital expressions in a virtual space on the basis of the physical HVAC system, which comprises the same devices, components and elements as those of the physical HVAC system, and which can highly reflect in the virtual space the properties and features that embodies these entity devices, components and elements in the reality. Furthermore, the third layer is a commissioning module, which is a control center that generates instructions and receives, computes, analyses and processes data so as to commission the physical system.

The commissioning module comprises a test work condition unit and a diagnostic engine. The test work condition unit is first introduced below. The test work condition unit is intended for establishing a commissioning mission, and the commissioning mission comprises setting at least one test work condition with respect to an object to be commissioned. The complication and hugeness of a HVAC system can make the commissioning mission have hundreds of commissioning items, with different commissioning missions directed to different objects to be commissioned. The commissioning mission comprises, but is not limited to, air balance commissioning, water pump commissioning, fan coils commissioning, cooling water tower commissioning, blower (fan) commissioning, fresh air ventilator/air process unit commissioning, VAV (variable air volume)/CAV (constant air volume) test, cooling, chilling and heating water system balance commissioning, fresh air system balance commissioning, cold and heat source commissioning (such as a cooling machine, a heating pump and a boiler), equipment noise commissioning, testing instrument commissioning and so on. The commissioned object can be a performance situation of either a certain component of a system or a branch portion of the system. To examine the situation of a target commissioned object in a system, it is necessary to set a test work condition so as to make the system operate in a preset work state, e.g., the speed of a certain water pump in the system is set to reach a certain frequency, or some valve is set to open a predetermined degree within certain time. Current tests of work conditions are fabricated by operators based on blueprints and industry standards. In the commissioning system of the present application, a test with a work condition can be a standard test which is an experienced and backup. Once an object to be commissioned is determined, the test work condition unit can automatically provide a corresponding test work condition so as to generate a commissioning mission. The test work condition can also be established by manually setting of a target. For example, an operator can input parameters through a man-machine interface, and the test work condition unit correspondingly generates a test work condition. Moreover, the objects to be commissioned and the test work conditions are not corresponding one to one. In one aspect, one single object to be commissioned can be verified by a system operating under multiple work conditions, that is, the system is operated with different components and/or variable parameters. In another aspect, the state of a plurality of the objects to be commissioned can be examined in one work condition.

The test work condition unit sends the commissioning mission to a controller(s) of the physical system and the diagnostic engine. The relevant introduction of the diagnostic engine will be made below. The controller can be a main controller of the physical system, intended for receiving the information of the commissioning module and transmitting the information to components corresponding to the physical system and digital twin system. HVAC components of the physical system have a mapping relation with digital components of the digital twin system. It can be the case that one of the controllers transmits an instruction to both one component of the physical system and one component of the digital twin system, the controller controlling a real component and a virtual component. Also, the case can be that one of the controllers transmits an instruction to several components of the physical system and the digital twin system, the controller controlling several real components and an equivalent number of virtual components. The instruction thereof is transmitted from the physical system so as to ensure consistent input of the HVAC components and the digital components. The HVAC components can be any operating devices, control components, pipes, instruments and so on in an existing HVAC system. Here, the HVAC components can comprise (but are not limited to): host, compressor, condenser, cooler, cooling tower, blower, fan, evaporator, expansion valve, chilling water system, cooling system, source of cold and heat, terminal device, and various pumps, air valve/water valve, regulating valve, air/water pipe, coil pipe and switch involved in an air process unit, etc. For most of the HVAC components, relative actuators are arranged to control the start, shutoff and regulation of the HVAC components, such as a fan motor and its variable-frequency driver, and a water pump and its variable-speed driver. The controller can transmit instructions to these drivers or actuators so as to exactly control the associated HVAC components to exert the instructions. In the digital twin system, corresponding digital components and the actuators associated with the digital components receive the instructions from the physical system, and perform the same commissioning mission as that of the physical system.

In the HVAC system, the operation of HVAC components leads to a change in physical quantity of the components themselves and the system. For example, upon an adjustment to the open degree of a valve, the flow of waterway is influenced, and physical quantity of the change is detected by a sensing component. The sensing component, in a general sense, can be a sensor or a feedback device of the HVAC components. The sensing component can be one or several in number, which can be arranged independent of or arranged onto the HVAC components. The data detected by the sensing component is indicative of a variable of the state of the HVAC components operating in a test work condition, comprising, but not limited to, air speed, air capacity, flow rate, flux, power consumption, temperature, hydraulic pressure, frequency, etc. In the digital twin system, the operation of digital components leads to a change in the physical quantity of the digital components themselves and of the system. Digital sensing components corresponding to HVAC sensing components carry out the same detection. As such, the HVAC system generates physical data which reflect an actual situation of the HVAC system, while the digital twin system generates digital data that reflect a theoretical state. The data of these two systems are transmitted to the diagnostic engine.

As illustrated by FIG. 1, the diagnostic engine of the commissioning system is intended for receiving the data of the physical system and the digital twin system, and for computing and processing the data to obtain diagnosis of the object to be commissioned. The test work condition unit also transmits to the diagnostic engine the commissioning mission that is sent to the controller of the HVAC system, whereby the diagnostic engine knows which test work condition the current HVAC system and digital twin system are operated in and, therefore, further knows which data are necessary to capture from the HVAC sensing components and the digital sensing components. Subsequently, the physical data and the digital data are compared when necessary data are captured. If these two values are close, it means a current commissioned object is normal and the next object to be commissioned can be tested continuously. If these two values are far different, abnormality might happen to the current commissioned object and a continuous test of the object to be commissioned is necessary for verification. Moreover, the diagnostic engine provides a tolerance as the benchmark; if the bias between the physical data and the digital data are within the range of the tolerance, the current commissioned object will be diagnosed as a normal one and a current commissioning mission be terminated while the subsequent commissioning can be carried out. Further, the diagnostic engine transmits the result to the test work condition unit, and the test work condition unit establishes a new commissioning mission. When the bias between the physical data and the digital data goes beyond the range of the tolerance, it means that the current commissioned object might have a problem. At this moment, other objects to be commissioned relevant to the current commissioned object would be tested to verify the current commissioned object. In this case, a new commissioned mission needs to be established. The diagnostic engine transmits the information to the test work condition unit. For the test work condition unit, it takes the responsibility to build up a new commissioning mission, or it can also establish a new work condition in the original commissioning mission. As for a certain object to be commissioned, for example, a series of test work conditions can be implemented, multiple of which are corresponding to multiple target state levels. For example, the system operates with 20% of the maximum load in a current work condition; in the subsequent round of test work condition, the system will operate in 40% of the maximum load. Further, the diagnostic engine transmits to the test work condition unit a result that a new test work condition needs to be established, and the test work condition unit will start the establishment of a new test work condition after receiving the result. Besides, during processing the physical data and the digital data, several calculation manners may be employed to make a comparison with the tolerance, such as difference value and ratio. The tolerance may be a value or a range.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of commissioning a cooling pump in the HVAC system according to the present application. The HVAC system is applied to buildings, the buildings indicating architectural structures with roofs and walls. The cooling pump is a water pump for cooling water circulation in the HVAC system, which is connected to an entrance of a cooling tower. The cooling pump exerts a control over cooling water through it so as to control the water flow pressed into the cooling tower. With the cooling pump being determined as an object to be commissioned, the test work condition unit establishes a test work condition 1 that comprises testing the cooling pump and testing a valve arranged in the cooling tower. The test work condition unit transmits the test work condition 1 to the controller of the HVAC system; the controller instructs the cooling tower and the cooling pump of the HVAC system to operate, while instructing the cooling tower and the cooling pump of the digital twin system to operate. Subsequently, the cooling tower and the cooling pump of the HVAC system and the digital twin system operate to control the cooling water circulation of their respective systems. The test work condition unit further sends the test work condition 1 to the diagnostic engine. The diagnostic engine captures cooling pump power consumption P_(phy) and cooling pump pressure head Pd_(phy) detected by a HVAC sensor of the HVAC system, and captures cooling pump power consumption P_(dig) and cooling pump pressure head Pd_(dig) detected by a digital sensor of a digital system. Within the diagnostic engine, a bias of the cooling pump power consumption and a bias of the cooling pump pressure head of each of the systems are separately computed. If (P_(phy)−P_(dig))/P_(dig)<tolerance value t, and (Pd_(phy)−Pd_(dig))/Pd_(dig)<tolerance value t, a test work condition 2 of the next step can be set for the cooling tower. If (P_(phy)−P_(dig))/P_(dig)>tolerance value t, and (Pd_(phy)−Pd_(dig))/Pd_(dig)>tolerance value t, a test work condition 3 is necessary to set for the cooling waterway.

Although specific embodiments of the present application are already illustrated and elaborated to explain the principle of the present application. However, one shall understand that the present application may be implemented by other means but without a deviation from such a principle. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A commissioning method for a HVAC system, comprising the step of: establishing a commissioning mission and sending it to a controller of the HVAC system, the commissioning mission comprising setting at least one test work condition with respect to an object to be commissioned, instructing the HVAC system and a digital twin system corresponding to the HVAC system to respectively operate with the at least one test work condition by the controller of the HVAC system; comparing physical data generated by the HVAC system and digital data generated by the digital twin system, and based on a comparison result, diagnosing the object to be commissioned.
 2. The commissioning method of claim 1, wherein outputting identical instructions to a HVAC component in the HVAC system designated by the commissioning mission and to a digital component corresponding to the HVAC component in the digital twin system by the controller of the HVAC system.
 3. The commissioning method of claim 2, wherein controlling an actuator associated with the HVAC component and a digital actuator associated with the digital component to instruct the HVAC component and the digital component by the controller of the HVAC system.
 4. The commissioning method of claim 1, further comprising sending the commissioning mission to a diagnostic engine, based on the commissioning mission, the diagnostic engine capturing the physical data and the digital data from the HVAC system and the digital twin system.
 5. The commissioning method of claim 4, wherein the physical data and the digital data comprise at least one quantitative value indicative of the state of the HVAC component and the digital component respectively in the HVAC system and the digital twin system which operate in the at least one test work condition.
 6. The commissioning method of claim 5, wherein detecting the HVAC component by a sensing component in the HVAC system to obtain the physical data, and detecting the digital component by a sensing component in the digital twin system to obtain the digital data.
 7. The commissioning method of claim 4, wherein obtaining a diagnosis result of the object to be commissioned by the diagnostic engine, the diagnosis result comprising any of the situations below and is notified by the diagnostic engine to a work condition testing unit which establishes the commissioning mission: 1) terminating a current commissioning mission; 2) changing the object to be commissioned, and establishing a new commissioning mission; 3) changing the test work condition in the original commissioning mission.
 8. The commissioning method of claim 7, wherein computing a tolerance provided by the diagnostic engine and a bias between the physical data and the digital data to obtain the diagnosis result.
 9. The commissioning method of claim 2, wherein the HVAC component comprises any one or any combination of the following group: host, compressor, condenser, cooler, cooling tower, blower, fan, evaporator, expansion valve, chilling water system, cooling system, source of cold and heat, terminal device, and various pumps, air valve/water valve, regulating valve, air/water pipe, coil pipe and switch involved in an air process unit.
 10. A commissioning system for a HVAC system, the HVAC system comprising a controller, a HVAC component, an actuator associated with the HVAC component and a sensing component for detecting the HVAC component, wherein the commissioning system comprises: a test work condition unit configured to establish a commissioning mission and send the commissioning mission to the controller; a digital twin system comprising a digital component, a digital actuator and a digital sensing component corresponding to the HVAC component, the actuator and the sensing component, wherein the digital twin system is corresponding to the HVAC system and receives the commissioning mission from the controller with the HVAC system; and, a diagnostic engine configured to receive physical data from the HVAC system and digital data from the digital twin system and produce a diagnosis result based on the physical data and the digital data.
 11. The commissioning system of claim 10, wherein the test work condition unit is further configured to send the commissioning mission to the diagnostic engine, and wherein the diagnostic engine captures the physical data and the digital data based on the commissioning mission.
 12. The commissioning system of claim 10, wherein the diagnostic engine is further configured to send the diagnosis result to the test work condition unit, the diagnosis result comprising any of the situations below: 1) terminating a current commissioning mission; 2) changing the object to be commissioned, and establishing a new commissioning mission; and, 3) changing a test work condition in the original commissioning mission. 